Joe Biden will become the 46th President of the United States. After winning the 2020 presidential election in November by 7 million popular votes and 74 Electoral College votes, the U.S. Congress formally certified Biden as the President-Elect early this morning.
The ratification of the election came after Donald Trump backers barged into the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday. The rioters attacked law enforcement, looted Congress members’ offices, damaged property, and tried to orchestrate a coup against the U.S. government.
Trump purposely incited his supporters minutes before the ill-fated raid at the Capitol. During a speech to his defenders, the current President vowed to “never concede” the election despite losing over 50 court cases concerning his inaccurate claims of widespread voter fraud.
It looks like Trump, or someone in his inner circle, is retreating on his declaration of never conceding. Multiple media outlets are now reporting that the defeated Republican politician has accepted that he will have to leave the White House on January 20 or before.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” reads a statement from Trump. This is the first time Trump has publicly admitted Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States.
Trump was not able to address the nation via his favored social media app. Twitter locked out the president’s account for 12 hours after breaking the platform’s rules on posting election-related disinformation and glorifying violence. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube removed a video message from Trump where he pushed debunked conspiracy theories about the election and proclaimed his love for the violent mob at the Capitol.
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1346970431039934464?s=20
We've assessed two policy violations against President Trump's Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time.
— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) January 7, 2021